A Stupid Idea !

I know that when people read this that they are going to think how stupid we are and to be honest, they will be right.
As we had been stuck in our village for nearly two weeks because of the snow, getting low on supplies and cabin fever was setting in ( more with me than Andy ), we decided to go for a long walk. Ok that doesn’t sound too bad or stupid, except we decided to walk to the nearest town, 13km away ! Yes a 26km round trip in the snow! Now your probably thinking we don’t have any shops in our village, we do, five to be precise. So now your thinking, so why walk 13km? The answer to that is the town, Dimovo, is bigger, more shops, more choice…..oh and we are mad.
We set off just after 10am, wrapped up like Michelin men, layers of clothing, hats, scarves and snow boots. It was snowing slightly but only very light,fine snow and it was -3c, so not really too cold. It took us 20 minutes just to get out of our village, as it’s quite a big village, although it did feel longer. The roads were thick with snow and ice even though the snow plough had been out every day. We would have taken a bus but i think due to the roads, they hadn’t been running for a few days. Still, the walk would do us good, even though it would take us hours.
The scenery around us was beautiful, very picture postcard. Although the snow causes so many problems, there is still something magical about it. I couldn’t resist taking a few photos along the way.

We hadn’t walked far out of our village, when I got a slight sharp pain on the top, inside of my leg, near the groin area, an old problem I’ve had in the past. It was nothing sever, just a sharp tugging feeling every time I took a step. Andy kept suggesting turning back, but me being the stubborn sort, I refused, said it was only hurting a little and I was fine. As we kept walking the pain grew worse but still I refused to turn back. It was one of the biggest and most stupid decisions I had ever made! Part of me wanted to turn back but another part wanted to do it, kind of a challenge really. In the past I’ve walked long distances, hour upon hour, but of course, never in thick snow.
We’d walked about 5km when my other leg started hurting in the same way and I couldn’t understand why. Yes, you guessed it, I still wouldn’t turn back!
About half way, there is a bridge over a river, a police car was heading our way in the opposite direction. When it stopped along side us, I thought they were going to ask if we were ok as we were, more or less, walking in the middle of nowhere. How silly of me to think that they were concerned in any way! They asked us for our identity cards, where we were going and if we were walking there, ( no we are bloody flying……fools! ). If nothing else at least we gave them something to laugh about.
After the bridge, there was a fairly steep climb and that’s when it really started to hurt my legs. Andy suggested I walk up it backwards and in all honesty it did help. It would have been a comical sight to see for anyone that drove past us, except we turned around every time a car was approaching, just so we didn’t look silly, ( a bit late for that! ).After about just over two hours walking we finally made it to the main road (E79), only 2.5km to go, except by this time I was in agony. Every step had become a battle. So much so, I had to stop every 30 seconds. Poor Andy was getting worried, he knew I was in a lot of pain but other than offer to carry me, ( which would have probably ended in a worse disaster ), there was nothing else he could of done except keep telling me ‘ not much further ‘. It took us just over an hour to walk that last 2.5km and every step was hell ! The pain was so intense I just wanted to cry. Worst thing of all was I knew I couldn’t walk back. It took us 3 1/2 hours to walk 13km.
I’d seen a couple of taxis pass us by, so we decided to get a taxi back, how naive were we ?We made it to a shop that we had been to before, as I knew the young woman could speak a little English. After purchasing some groceries, (although not everything that we needed, as I wasn’t in the frame of mind to shop, I just wanted to get home), I asked the woman if we could get a taxi or phone for one, well she just laughed ‘ no taxis here’. The only way we might have been able to get a taxi is if we called for one in Vidin, well that was miles away and would cost a fortune. So that’s when I panicked. I couldn’t walk and we needed to get home! In the end we had no option but to phone our friends to pick us up. They were shopping in Vidin at the time but were just about to leave and they didn’t hesitate to agree to come pick us up. I was so relieved and grateful, especially as they had to travel 36km just to rescue us. It was just over an hour by the time they got to us, by that time we were both frozen. I couldn’t apologise more to our friends, ( our heroes 🙂 ), after all it was my stubbornness and stupidity that got us into this mess, worse still, we weren’t the only ones they had rescued, as they had just rescued another couple who had been stranded and had to drop them off first before coming to pick us up!
It was such a relief to get home into the warmth and safety. After a nice hot shower and some hot food, we settled down for the evening in front of the fire. Andy was aching and I was still in pain, so much so, I just couldn’t get comfortable. By 7.30pm we were worn out so decided to go to bed. It hurt just climbing into bed and although it was great just to be able to rest my legs, it wasn’t long before I was in agony again. Every time I tried to turn over, it was torture. In the end I couldn’t stand it any longer so I got up and sat on the sofa until eventually I was so tired, I fell asleep. It’s still painful to walk but I’m hoping by tomorrow, my legs will feel better. I suppose i got my just deserts.
Moral of this story, don’t venture too far away from home, especially in the snow and more importantly never be a stupid as me !!!!!

The actual idea is not so stupid if you have the conditioning and equipment. However knowing you’re not in top form and still undertaking such a trip and worse – not turning back with all the alarming signals of trouble is stupid indeed 🙂 Good thing you have great friends to help you in a moment of need!

By the way, you could have asked the police for a ride. I’ve done so on numerous occasions when in trouble (last time got caught in a freak hail thunderstorm)…

Hi, just discovered your blog which is very entertaining and informative and I’m enjoying it all immensley. It would be interesting to hear about your budget and whether after 9 months it’s all going to plan?

Thanks for your comments and I’m glad your enjoying our blog. If you have any questions, we will be happy to answer within reason of course. Please contact us through our email address which you will find on our ‘ about me ‘ page, regards Marie

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